Indigence gets expensive

December 8, 2006

I am not a medical student; rather, like many, I’m learning as I go along pieces of information about anatomy and physiology, disease and injury, the practice of medicine, and medical care provision. There is a great deal that I do not know in all areas.

If you don’t make it to 65 without an expensive medical event, and if you have no medical insurance, what do you do about follow-up medical visits, if the medical team who saved your life don’t like the fact that you’re not paying their bills? That’s one of the questions I’m dealing with after my long run without medical care came to an end.

You may have heard someone say what I earlier said to myself, that even if going to an emergency room for an illness were to seem a necessity, I might just tough it out on my own or even die rather than go there without any medical insurance and without the financial assets or credit to cover what would certainly be large medical expense. Well, that assertion is easier stated than acted upon when one’s health situation gets bad.

After the onset of a bad medical event, if you’re fortunate enough to have the time and lucidity to think in detail, your thoughts turn to what is likely to happen if death or even a long convalescence occurs. I admitted to myself that my family would be greatly affected. Also, paramedical and medical personnel would certainly become involved in the event of death, as would public offices concerned with deaths. There’s no way to simply perish without consequences affecting other humans.

This is my first post. If it flies, I have a few other aspects of the topic in mind for future posts.

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2 Responses to “Indigence gets expensive”

I started writing the post above over two months ago, and finished it today. I erroneously assumed that the date that would appear would be today’s date.

I somehow didn’t get the preferred author name for this blog, found in the URL, registered. Instead of it the author/user name of the first blog I registered appeared; I’ve removed that name from administration of this blog, and I’m going with the one used for this reply.

It’s an unfortunate fact that most people get their medical education in exactly the manner you describe. It is one of the not-so-hidden costs of our current system that physicians and other health providers have increasingly had to scrimp on education/conversation in order to see more patients. It’s also an unfortunate fact that far too many Americans are faced with exactly the decision you faced: seek care or not when you know you will have to pay for it yourself.